Sessions with Joy are like taking a swim in a warm ocean. You immediately drop into a place of comfort and ongoing awareness. She guides by her warmth of heart and depth of intuition. Her gift for listening to the undercurrent and encouraging the forgotten parts to surface make Joy’s sessions a safe and daring place for discovery, recovery and healing.
~ Stork and Erika Rein, Mt. Shasta

Let’s face it ~ no matter how aware we are, how much work we’ve done on ourselves, how much we cherish our partners, there are times when we feel stuck in our relationships. Repetitive patterns and old issues seem to take precedent over the intimacy we say we want. We know Love exists in our hearts, yet it gets buried beneath a backlog of complaints and disappointments until it feels like there’s a vice-grip on our hearts.

But there IS hope! And more than hope, there are actual skills and simple practices that I guarantee you, if you use them, will get you out of “the grip” of your relationship snafus. I have spent two decades exploring systems and developing practices that turned my love life from one-steep-learning-curve-to-the-next into an oasis of intimacy. My mission is to model and inspire others to living a life of exquisite connection and depth, if that is truly their heart’s desire.

In a relationship session, I provide a safe, spacious container where ANYTHING can be witnessed and explored. I use body-centered techniques for supporting clients in getting out of their story and into a deeper level of awareness. I help each person name and claim their part in the dynamic, and shine light on the behavior and beliefs that are affecting the relationship. Together, we develop simple practices that support each person in expanding their continued awareness of themselves and their “significant other” (BTW, I work with all kinds of relationships).

I prefer to work intensively and short term with most folks. My experience is that once awareness and the right tools are in place, people need time to go out and practice for awhile. Coaching is not about long-term process work (which can be very valuable at certain times), but experiencing insight and then shifting behavior to garner different results than previously thought possible.

Sessions are generally 75 – 90 minutes in length for couples, less for individual work (many clients work separately from their partner with me). I ask for an initial six-session commitment so that we can track results and work more potently. After these first six meetings, we assess the continuing needs of each person. We then create follow-up sessions to support the integration process and/or the next levels of co-creation.